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Rep. Pat Meehan Won’t Seek Re-Election After Harassment Allegations

Updated 01.26.18 5:42AM ET / Published 01.25.18 8:47PM ET

Jim Bourg/Reuters

Embattled Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-PA) will not seek re-election to the House of Representatives this year. Meehan’s decision comes after recent disclosures that he used taxpayer funds to settle a sexual-harassment claim. “Unfortunately, recent events concerning my office and the settlement of certain harassment allegations have become a major distraction,” Meehan wrote in a letter obtained by The Philadelphia Inquirer. “I need to own it because it is my own conduct that fueled the matter.” Meehan described the woman who accused him of sexual harassment as a “soul mate,” a comment for which he apologized. “No characterization of the work relationship I shared with a uniquely close colleague could have been more personally harmful than when I described that co-worker as a ‘soul-mate,”’ Meehan wrote.